where the past is always present

Princess Diana: Death Photo Leaked (Pt. 2)

Dodi Al Fayed looks over Princess Diana’s shoulder just minutes before the two of them will die in a Paris tunnel.

Keith Allen, the director of the controversial film, “Unlawful Killing,” is interviewed today by the UK Daily Mail regarding his decision to include in the “documentary” a previously unseen and graphic black and white photo of Princess Diana as she lay dying August 31, 1997. The photo was probably sold by one of the paparazzi in the Paris tunnel with her at the time of her fatal car crash. (1)

“Unlawful Killing” debuts tomorrow at the Cannes Film Festival. Allen defends his tasteless use of the disturbing photo of the much beloved princess on the heels of the Royal Wedding:

The photo is not used in the film for the purpose of shock. It is included as evidence, because it shows clearly that, although Diana had been injured in the crash, she was alert and very much alive. I repeat: it is not a picture of a dying woman.

As medical evidence presented at the inquest confirmed, if Diana had been taken promptly to hospital by Dr Jean-Marc Martino, she could well have survived.

Instead, due to a series of delays that have never been properly explained, it took one hour and 43 minutes to get her to a hospital just a couple of miles away, by which time her life was ebbing away.

We briefly use one photograph as part of a sequence which asks: why was she not taken to hospital more quickly? What took place within Dr Martino’s ambulance (inside which she remained for well over an hour)? Why is Dr Martino’s evidence greatly at variance with the known facts? And why did no official inquiry ever interview (or even name) most of other people in the ambulance?

Surely, if the inquest and police enquiries were as ‘thorough’ and ‘open’ as the voices of authority insist, that is the very least they would have done?

My film is not about a conspiracy before the crash, but about a conspiracy after the crash, culminating in a six-month inquest which (it is my contention) sought to bury the truth, rather than reveal it. I don’t know whether I’ll convince you or not, but I hope you’ll reserve judgement until you have seen it for yourselves.

Admittedly, that’s difficult at the moment, because the film cannot be shown in the UK (mainly because the questions it asks about the conduct of the coroner and police chiefs could lead to us all being imprisoned under contempt of court laws). But it will soon be showing widely throughout the world, so many of you will be able to see it elsewhere.” (2)

Allen admits that “Unlawful Killing” is backed by Mohamed Al Fayed, the former owner of Harrods Department Store in London. Al Fayed is the father of DodiFayed, Diana’s lover, who also died in the Paris crash.

Summer 1997: Dodi Al Fayed and Princess Diana

Mohamed Al Fayed is convinced that Dodi and Diana were murdered by a collaboration between the British spy agency M16 and Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip.

Mohamed Al Fayed has pursued his elaborate conspiracy theory for over a decade, memorably presenting it at an official British inquest into the deaths of Dodi and Diana. (3) However, on April 7, 2008, the jury released an official statement that sharply dismissed Al Fayed’s claim:

Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed by the grossly negligent driving of chauffeur Henri Paul and the paparazzi. Though the official verdict implicated the pursuing vehicles, the jury also named the intoxication of the driver and the victims’ decisions to not wear seat-belts as contributing factors to their deaths. Additionally, the Mercedes had been travelling at over twice the legal speed limit of that particular section of road and had long since left the paparazzi vehicles far behind by the time the accident occurred.” (4)

Princess Diana (1961-1997). Mohamed Al Fayed created many myths about his son Dodi and Princess Diana’s romance, particularly that they were getting ready to announce their wedding plans. He even went so far as to claim that Diana was pregnant at the time of her death. The British inquest into Diana’s death concluded that she was not pregnant at the end.

21 Responses

I’m really horrified by the use of such a photo and dread the day when it starts appearing online, which it doubtless will. Poor William and Harry. No one needs to see such a thing, least of all them. I think I’ll always feel protective of those boys no matter how old they get — the image of them walking behind their mother’s coffin is so ingrained on my mind.

On a more cheerful note, I enjoy your blog very much! You talk about so many of the people I too find completely fascinating — Diana, Jackie Onassis, Carla Bruni, and Princess Grace to name a few. Oh, and also the lovely new Duchess of Cambridge! Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about her as her new royal life progresses. 🙂

SADLY I FELT THAT PRINCESS DIANA DIDN’T USE HER FRIENDS PHONE NUMBERS TO HELP HER TO THE NEXT STEP TO HER FUTURE WITH OR WITHOUT CHARLES, SHE NEEDED TO SEE MORE OF HER ROYAL FAMILY AND TO ECLUDE THEIR PRESENTS IN HER LIFE.BY GETTING TO KNOW THEM AND RAISE HER SON, SHE NEEDED TO GET INVOLVE WITH WEALTHY ARISTOCRATICS LIKE JACQUELIN KENNEDY ONASSIS BEFORE SHE DIED IN 1994, SHE NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND WHOM SHE IS, AND THAT TAKES MORE THEN A YEAR TO DUE IN THE LIME LIGHT OF MEDIA,SHE REALLY NEEDED TO RESPECT HERSELF AND HER VALUES. DESPITE ALL OUR RESPECT FOR PRINCESS DIANA, SHE PUT HER SONS WITH PRINCES CHARLES FIRST ,AND SO WHEN PEOLPLE SAY SHE WOULD HAVE LIKE KATE MIDDLETON I SAY NO, SHE WANTED ABOVE ALL HER SONS TO MARRY MONARCHY AND FIND TRUE LOVE WITHIN THE POND ,BETTER THAN HER FAMILY DID ….TO REMAIN .SHE HOLD HER ROYAL HERITAGE IN HIGH ELOQUENT TO THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND EVEN WHEN CHARLES AND HER DIDN’T THINK THEY LOVED EACH OTHER.EVEN IN A MOVIE CHARLES LOVED DIANA AND SEEM TO NOT BE ABLE TO SHOW IT THE WAY HE WAS SUPPOSE TO. HE MADE SURE SHE HAD A FURNERAL OF RESPECT TO MAKE THE SUBJECT UNDERSTAND THE FAMILY IS IN GRIEFS. ALTHOUGH DIANA WAS DATING SOMEONE OF DIFFERENT BELIEF THAN SHE, SHE WASN’T GOING TO MARRY OUTSIDE THE ROYAL FAMILY. SHE WANTED TO DATE A DUKE BUT HE WAS HAPPILY MARRIED ,SHE HAD IDEAS OF MANY WELL KNOWN PUBLIC FIRGURES BUT WAS TWO SHY TO RELAY AN INTEREST.BUT ALWAYS LOVED HER SONS..

It’s worth noting that the emergency procedures employed in the UK differ greatly from those utilized in the US. Here (in America), we believe that an injured person should be immediately loaded into an ambulance and carted off to the nearest hospital at any cost. However, in the UK, they take into account the fact that a severely traumatized person can be injured FURTHER by the bumps and jolts of an ambulance ride, and make it a priority to stabilize the person on the scene as much as possible before subjecting them to that. This definitely has a lot to do with the amount of time that passed between the ambulance arriving at the scene and showing up at the hospital. I don’t think it had anything to do with some secret conspiracy to just let her die, as it were. She was a controversial person, but that one little piece of the puzzle just doesn’t fit as far as scandalous reasons for her death are concerned.

You described exactly what the French medical personnel did when they reached Princess Diana following the car crash. They sought to stabilize her at the scene rather than rushing her to the hospital. I think the system evolved to cut costs for the gov’t.

I remember hearing about her death as if it were yesterday and dreaded seeing her death photos, but, unfortunately, it was bound to happen.

She was a public figure who died on a public street in an international city and people have been curious all these years to see what she looked like in that car. I really don’t need to see any of her death photos, but if it happens it happens. They’re certainly not going to be the way I remember the public Diana.

It’s a fact of human nature: People are going to be curious to see what a celebrity looks like dead. It’s the reason why the death pics of Elvis Presley (1977), John Lennon (1980), and Whitney Houston (2012) wound up on the front page of The National Enquirer tabloid. I’m not trying to be clinical, they’re just my observations.

[…] Princess Diana: Death Photo Leaked (Pt. 2) | Lisa’s … – I’m really horrified by the use of such a photo and dread the day when it starts appearing online, which it doubtless will. Poor William and Harry…. […]

Adelino, thank you for visiting Lisa’s History Room. Princess Diana was – and is still- much loved. She died so suddenly and tragically that people were in disbelief. Viewing a loved one’s body after death helps us – the living – to accept his or her passing. This is a human need. There is no shame in it.

Dear Ms. Rogers,
Thank you for your scholarly and well written aticle .
I am an Iranian reader here in Iran and appreciate it a lot. I was actually searching for stuff about Typhoid Mary when I came across your blogs.
Thanks again. Looking forward to reading more of your interesting writings.

I am from the USA. Diana Princess of Wales had a special quality that genuinely loved to help people in unfortunate circumstances. She gave love to others and her love was returned by the ‘world’. I think the ‘world’ showing her such love was therapeutic and helped to heal a broken heart and helped her to deal appropriately with disappointments in her personal life. I have never met her but feel a sadness that she is gone and wish she were alive. Her legacy definitely lives in Princes William and Harry and Prince George and Charlotte Elizabeth Diana and Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer. Diana Princess of Wales will not soon be forgotten.